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(July 21, 2018) When good intentions of the government are stymied by minor procedural issuesReticent Chandramathi is a gram panchayat member in Kerwase, Karkala taluk where her family is now settled. Coconut and arecanut trees surround the house and fetch the family a good revenue. More importantly, all her six sons have been educated after the move from Malejodi settlement in Belthangadi range of the Kudremukh National Park.Kudremukh Landscape © Kiran Yadav"For any emergency we had to walk 6-8 kms from w...

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(July 20, 2018) Sheer willpower and a splash of technology is helping forest officials make their way through this difficult landscape.It's 3.58 pm on a humid Tuesday in the forest when Jagdish Rana hears a rustle in the bushes. He signals to his team and they quietly take cover as silently as possible. They see a poacher emerge out of the bushes holding the head of a spotted deer walking away with confidence. He signals once again to his team and they rush out. The startled poacher makes a dash to escape but i...

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(July 18, 2018) When Shinde turned on the pipe for supplying water through an abandoned, dusty culvert - he expected a free-flowing stream to provide some water to irrigate his fields. What he did not anticipate was the yelps of two young jackal cubs startled at the sudden flux of water. He jumped to shut the water supply, lifted out the meek cubs, and carried them home. “Their mother was nowhere to be seen, and they would have died in the ditch alone, so I decided to take them home,” he reasoned.Th...

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(July 17, 2018) A chilly misty morning beckoned me as I started to drive from my friend’s house, near the temple inside the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, to K.Gudi (Kyatarayana Gudi) area for the morning safari.  Being the first to cross the forest gate after the VGKK ashram, the only sounds that greeted me were the birds calling, the kluk-kluking of the Jungle Fowl, the echoing boom of the langur, the occasional bark of a muntjac and the soft whirring of my vehicle Swift. A lone bull gau...

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(July 13, 2018) As Nagarahole tiger reserve tribals join the mainstream, the boundaries are blurring.Small vans crammed with household stuff come bouncing along the road and into the Masthigudi relocation centre in H D Kote. The luggage also includes useful bits and pieces of the dismantled huts once lived in.This is the site of the latest tribal colony built in Bheemanahalli village by the government to accommodate around 200 families that have sought voluntary relocation from various parts of the Nagarahole t...

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(July 10, 2018) Leopards have expertly adapted to living in Mumbai, and people are slowly following suit.“I did not expect it to be such a shy animal,” reflects Rohan Shah. “Over the last year, I have encountered the leopard many times in this forest but surprisingly, each time it seemed more frightened of me, than I was, of it.”A local train to the Borivali local train station on a typically hot and humid day, followed by an auto rickshaw through loud, narrow lanes of MG Road and a walk...

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(July 06, 2018) Rotary Club and Selco have helped bring light to the homes of tribals.Ashwath from Sollepura relocation centre is a class ten student who secured first class marks this year. He was admitted to the Vishwa Bharathi Vidya Samasthe in HD Kote for his higher education. Contributing to his success in no small measure is the fact that the dark homes in this settlement have been lit with solar power, thanks to the involvement of civil society.Irregular power supply, unscheduled power cuts and power dis...

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(July 04, 2018) Recovering data from Camera traps comes as an exciting adventure with its ups and downs.It was 2014. The college term had come to an end and I was clearing my desk for the summer break.The students were excited they were going to the next class, with new subjects, new teachers and new things to learn, not to forget new classes to bunk!!!Then it dawned on me that I had to teach the same subjects again next year. What a boring proposition. Life had come a full circle and I was bored with my job ag...

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(June 29, 2018) Grasslands stretching far and wide till the eye can see; Koppal, a district in Karnataka is blessed with a varied set of landscapes from rocky outcrops to grasslands - these habitats play home to some of the most elusive wildlife species in India.The Indian grey wolf, striped hyenas, jungle cats, rusty spotted cats, leopards, blackbucks, jackals, foxes are some of the species spotted in this widespread landscape.Despite the rich biodiversity, Koppal isn’t a protected area. Through the gene...

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(June 15, 2018) Wild Seve, a novel initiative set up to speed up and ensure compensation reaches the affected families, is helping bring some amount of harmony amidst human wildlife conflicts.Chennegowda leads the way through a narrow, labyrinthine path that winds and curls past little houses with gardens and backyards. Every time it looks as though you have reached the destination, the path veers capriciously to the left or right, opening up more homes, more gardens and backyards.  The houses are neat, wi...

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